No one knows the future. We pretend as though we do: we make plans, schedule things in the distant future and spend time before we are ever granted it. This may be because the greatest terror for humans is not having a future. Perhaps this is why Jesus told his followers not to worry about the times and dates that God has set in place for us. This has the power to lead us to the place of nihilism, if we stop to consider we really don’t know. Does it even matter?

Of course, it matters. While Jesus was short on specifics, there is a picture of restoration that we are invited to consider. That though the temple was torn down, it will be rebuilt in three days. Even when we cannot go back, even when everything is ending … just wait that means something new is happening. Something that will outlive us. A future that is pulling us forward.

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Something has ended … a plan, a strategy, a road map, a story, but what has been birthed is not yet clear. This is liminal space. It is the moment when we have not fully crossed the threshold into the new world, but stand over it with one foot in the world that has ended and the other foot in the world that is to come. Perhaps the best we can do is look back as a way of looking at the present and as a way of looking forward. In this, we just might find how to occupy this middle place in a healthy way and remain open to whatever may come.

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Anytime the end of something arrives there is a sense that’s things are over as we knew them. And while they may be true, the end of something also signals something new is on the horizon. Which is to say, anytime we face an ending or the end of something, that means it’s the first step toward something new being born.

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Jesus tells a parable about a master giving money to his servants. Too often we approach this from our modern, capitalistic, Western viewpoint. But the hint that this is not about money is found on the lips of the master when he returns … he praises his servants for being “faithful” not successful. These are two wildly different things and it would do us well to pay attention to this for a moment.

To invest the master’s money while he is gone seeking to become king is a vote of confidence the master will return as king. To bury the money until the master returns reflects a belief the master may not return as king, and it’s best to wait it out and see what happens. The difference between the faithful and wicked servants is their belief and trust in the king.

Which raises a question for the hearer of this story … “How are we using the gifts given to us?” Do our lives and the time we spend reflect our confidence in our king?

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The famous children’s song betrays the scandal behind the story of Zacchaeus. He was not just a “wee little man …” He was a corrupt businessman working on behalf of the Roman Empire. He exploited the poor, and furthered the oppression of Rome. And then Jesus, a “friend of sinners” and a “companion to the poor” wants to hang with him?

Imagine what the poor may have thought. We are quick to point out how Jesus hung out with the “down-and-outers”, but what do we make of Jesus who hangs out with the “up-and-outers”. Too often the “other” are those who are different from us. But what if we are, in fact, the other? What if we have become so blind to who we are we are unable to see that Jesus crossed lines to hang out with people like us too – not just those who are not like us?

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In this teaching, Lead Pastor Michael Hidalgo considers how Luke plays with the idea of sight- what it means to see Jesus for who he is, and how Jesus seeks to bring healing to everyone. In a moment of almost comic relief, Luke tells a story in which a blind fellow knows who Jesus is. He cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Several people responded by rebuking him and telling him to be quiet. Though they could see, they apparently were blind. No matter what they said, he would not keep quiet. So he kept shouting.

It is then that Jesus stops the traffic and approaches the man who tells Jesus he wants to see. Of course, in some ways he already does. Jesus, having compassion, heals the man but he also heals the crowd to. As Luke writes with a 1st Century wink and a nod, “When all the people saw it, they also praised God.” Apparently, in the end, everyone truly sees.

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The disciples still seem so dull. Jesus tells them about his impending death and all they can dwell upon is what places of power they will have in the kingdom of heaven. They want to be sure that their name will be remembered.

Jesus tells them that it is in his death that he will be exalted. Jesus teaches them that the pursuit of the Kingdom is not about getting ahead, but about dying. In his case, the cup that has been given to him is one of suffering and death. Clearly his kingdom is from another world – where as citizens we are those who serve.

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There is nothing wrong with being rich; it is what can happen to those who acquire wealth that is Jesus’ focus in Luke 18:18-30: that we can become slaves to it. Instead of owning it – it can own us. This is the reminder that God gives to his people in Deuteronomy 8 when he warns them never to think that they have created their wealth, but to remember that God is the one who has given it to them.

In this story we meet a young, wealthy, influential person who lacks one thing – the ability to walk away from his money. In his exchange with Jesus, we see that Jesus loves him. He is not mad, he does not roll his eyes, he does not condemn, rather he loves. He tells the man to give it all away – why? Because you can’t enter the kingdom with all sorts of attachments, which asks the question, “How many times do we walk away from the loving gaze of Jesus?”

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